Thread holder for weft-replenishing looms



Oct. l, 1929.

R. G. TURNER THREAD HOLDER FOR WEFT REPLENISHING LOOMS Filed Dec. 21. 1927 k ......umlllll!! Patented Oct. l, 1929 starts RICHARD G. TURNER, OF WORESTER, MASSACHUSETTS, assetonro cRoMrToN a KNOWLES LOOIVI WORKS, OF VJORCESTER,JIVIASSLACHUSETTS; CRPORATION OF MASSACHUSETTS TEREAD -o DER FOB. WEFT-REPLENISHING teoris n Application filed December 21, 1927. Serial No. %1371.

This invention relates to'a thread holder for wet't replenishing looms and it is the general object of the invention to provide a holder which will yield slightly to prevent breaking of the wett at the time of transfer.

'In wett -replenishing looms a reserve supply of full bobbins is held in readiness to be delivered one at a time to the exhausted shuttle. It is. necessary in order that weavng may continue and that theshuttle be threaded that the yarn from each of these' bobbins be held to some relatively fixed point so that after a full bobbn is inserted in the shuttle the threading of the' eye' of the shuttle may either be initiated Or completed on the first pick of the loom. Furthermore, the thread holder serves to hold the filling so as to require the same to be unwound 'rom the bobbin; acting in this respect as the selvage of the cloth usually does. r

In weft replenishing looms of the multicolor type the'bobbins are arrangedin paral- 'lel vertical stacks and descend by' gravity, the' thread from the various bobbins being laid through slots in the outside irame of the magazine and extending toward a thread holder'. As the bobbns 'descend the threads. extending therefrom are likely to become entangled so that when a bobbin finally reaches transfer position it occasionally happens that the weft extendingtherefrom to the holder is taut. The action of the transfer arm 'is sudden and moves the bobbin downwardlya sufilcient distance to break the thread extending to the thread holder if it is too tight. It

is accordingly animportant object ofmy in vention to provide a yieldable or fieXible amount to tend to take upany slack that mght occur in the threads. i e

' At the time of-transfer there are usually two pieceso' thread which must be gotten rid of in order to permit the weaving of per- :feet `cloth. The first of these isprovded by the exhausted bobbin and extends from the selvage adjaeent themagazine through the shuttle eye down through the slot in the lay tothe bobbin can. Theother piece of thread extends :from the thread e holder. through the shuttle box andto the adjacent selvage. I fihdthat at the time of transfer this thread is placed under sufiicienttension to temporarily 'Stress the yeldng thread holder so that when it is cut at the selvage bythe temple eutter the threadholder springs outwardly away; trom the selvage to whip the threadout ot the box and away from the path .of the shuttle so as not to be drawn into the shed. V i 'i Vith these and other objects in ;view which willappear as the description proceeds, my ,invention resides in the eombination and arrangement of partshereihatter described and set forth in the claims. J i In the accompanyng'drawings Wherein, l'

have shown a conyenient embodimentof my invention,. V i v l is a front elevation of a multicolor weft replenishing mechanism` having my invention applied thereto, parts of the lay being shownaiv ,i 1 e Flg. 2 s a horizontal section on line 2'-2 of Fg. 1,

Fig; 3 is. a transverse verticallsection on line3-,3 OfFig. l,

Fig. i is an ehlarged detail longitudinal -section through the threadl'iolder taken on line i-otFig. 1,

i Fig. 5 is an enlargedsection online 5+5 Fig 6 is a side'elevation of amodified form of the holder. v i i Reterring to thedrawings, it Will be seen that I haveshowr a maga'zine; a shuttle and a .lay more or less diagrammatcally to indicate the relative position these parts sustain towardeach other. The lay 10 is provided with ,a shuttle S. actuated by pcker stick 11 eXtending through the slot 12 in the lay. A binder 13 extends through a guide 14 forming part of the mouth of the box and said guide has a vertically extending wall 15 as shown in Fig. 3 and a horizontal upper shield 16. A temple 17 may be ot' the usual form and is provided with a thread cutter 18 shown in Fig. 2.

'The wett replenishing mechanism includes a magazine 19 having inside and outside plates 20 and 21, respectively, which guide the stack of bobbins 22. At the time of indication of weft eXhaustion by weft detectin g mechanism not shown the stack of bobbins will move downwardly an amount equal substantially to the diameter ot' one of the bobbins and when the shuttle which has indicated substantial exhaustion again arrives under the nagazine 19 the lowermost bobbin of the stack will be lowered to transfer position by mechanism not shown. Each bobbin has extending therefrom a thread 23 and said threads move downwardly with the bobbins. is common Construction in automatic or weft replenishingmultieolor looms and forms no part of my present invention, reference being had to patent to Ryon No.. 1,030,748 for the weftreplenishing features and to No. 630236 to Joy for the temple cutter.

My present invention relates more particularly to the means for holding the threads 23 and in carrying the preferred form of my invention into efi'ect I provide a stand 40 held to the outside plate 21 by means of a bolt 41 and provide said stand with a downwardly diagonally extending shank 42 which may be of rectangular cross-section as shown in Fig. 2. The stand 40 is similar to the upper portion of thread holders now in use except for the size and shape of the shank 42. Fitted over the shank 42 is a piece of rubber tubing 43 having a bore 44 therethrough which is smaller than the shank 42. The tube 43 extends in the general direction shown in Fig. 1 and has Secured in the lower end thereof a thread retainer 45 which eX- tends into and is held frictionally by a bore 44.

In the modified form' shown in Fig. 6 the yielding element is a coil spring having the ends frictionally holding the shank 42 and retainer 45.

In operation the bobbins 22 will descend and one by one will be inserted into the shuttle S. During the movement from the magazine to the shuttle the thread will be placed under a slight strain but breakage of the thread will be prevented by a yielding of the fiexible element 43 until it assumes some such a position as that indicated in dotted lines in Fig. 1. Reference to Fig. 3 will indicate another reason why the thread is likely to be placed under strain before it is sutficiently clamped by the closing of the warp sheds and The matter thus far described this is the fact that the thread is likely to eX- tend behind the vertical wall 15 of the box mouth to be located ata position indicated at I find in actual practice that threads located as indicated in Fig. 3 will either break or will slide up in the direction of arrow A to clear the vertical wall 15. Should the thread be down sufliciently on the wall 15 so that breakage would otherwise occur I find this breakage is avoided by the use of my present invention.

Another feature of my invention is the relation the yielding thread holder sustains to the thread cutter and by referring to Fig. 2 it will be apparent that when the cutter 18 operates to sever the thread extending from the selvage toward the thread holder the latter will be released and will move from the dotted to the tull line position shown in F ig. l, this movement being rather quick and having the efl'eet of whipping the thread 23 corresponding to the freshly transferred bobbin out of the path of the shuttle so that the same will hang down to assume the dot and dash line position shown at in Fig l. The'modified form shown in Fig. 6 acts substantially as does the preterred form made ot rubber.

From the foregoing it will be seen that I have provided a fiexible or yieldable and resilient thread holder which not only permits the transfer of bobbins to take place without breakage of the filling threads, but also acts to withdraw the trailing end of filling which is left after the temple cutter operates.

Having thus described my invention it will be apparent that changes and modifications may be made therein by those skilled in the art without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention and I do not wish to be limited to the details herein disclosed, but What I claim is l. In a thread holder for a weft replenishing mechanism carrying a supply of reserve bobbins which are to be inserted one at a time into the active shuttle, a thread retainer to which is Secured the threads extending from the reserve bobbins, a substantially tubular resilient device having one end in holding engagement with respect to the retainer and having the other end fixed relatively to the weft replenishing mechanism, saidvretainer being normally inclined downwardly and outwardly relatively to the replenishing mechanism and movable in all angular directions with respect to the normal axis of the tubular member to prevent breakage of a thread attached to the retainer, said retainer being movable downwardly when the thread corresponding to the bobbin being transferred is placed under tension.

2. In a thread holder 'for a weft replenishing loom having a supply ot reserve bobbins, a thread cutter located adjacent the cloth,

and a shuttle to receive the reserve bobbins one at a time, a thread retainer to which all the thread ends eXtending from the reserve bobbins are directly connected, and a resilient mounting for said retainer supported by the replenishing mechanism, said resilient mounting to be defiected from normal to abnormal position by the pull of the thread of a bobbin which is being inserted in the shuttle at the time of transfer, said resilient mounting normally inclined downwardly and outwardly relatively to the replenishing mechanism and eXerting a withdrawng :force on the thread when'the latter is cut by the cutter, said retainer being movable downwardly when the thread corresponding to the bobbin being transferred is placed under tension.

3. In a weft replenishing loom having a set of reserve bobbins and a shuttle to receive a reserve bobbin, a thread retainer to hold the threads from the reserve bobbins, and a downwardly and outwardly inclined elastic' element connected to the replenishing loom at its upper end and to the retainer at its lower end, said element being movable downwardly and inwardly toward the shuttle at the time of transfer to move the thread of p the bobbin being transferred to a more nearly aligned position with the shuttle.

4. In a weft replenishing loom having a set of reserve bobbins and a shuttle to receive a reserve bobbin, a thread retainer to hold the threads from the reserve bobbins, and a downwardly and outwarclly inclined elastic eleend, said element being movable downwardly,

and inwardly toward the shuttle at the time of transfer to move the thread of the bobbin being transferred to a more nearly aligned position with the shuttle, said element comprising an elastic tubular member into which a portion of the retainer extends.

5. In a weft replenishing mechanism having a supply of reserve bobbins in a shuttle to receive a bobbin from the mechanism, an elongated member projecting downwardly and outwardly relatively to the mechanism and Secured to the latter, an elastic tubular member fitted over and held frictionally to the elongated member, and means to attach the ends eXtending to the reserve bobbins to the lower end of said elastic tubular member, said elastic tubular member yielding downwardly and towardthe shuttle at the time of transfer.

6. In a weft replenishing mechanism having a supply of reserve bobbins in a shuttle to receive a bobbin from the mechanism, an elongated member projecting downwardly and outwardly relatively to the mechanism and Secured to the latter, an elastic tubular member fitted over and held frictionally to the elongated member, and means to attach the ends extending to the reservebobbns to the lower end of said elastic tubular member, said elastic tubular member yielding downwardly and toward the shuttle at the time of transfer, said means including a retaner fitted into and held frictionally by the elastic tubular member. i 7. In a weft replenishing mechanism having a supply'of reserve bobbins and a shuttle to receive one of the reserve bobbins, a thread holder normally in relatively high position to hold the weft ends eXtending from the reserve bobbins, said holder being yicldable and movable downwardly toward the path of the shuttle at the time of transfer so that the end of filling extending from the reserve bobbin can be placed more nearly in alignment with the shuttle.

8. In a thread holder for a weft replenishing mechanism carrying a supply of reserve bobbins which are to be inserted one at a time into the active shuttle, a retainer to which are secured the ends of thread which extend from the reserve bobbins, a resilient r from a bobbin to be transferred to the rei tainer, said retainer being movable downwardly toward the path of the shuttle and inwardly toward the reserve bobbins when the thread corresponding to the bobbin being transferred is placed under tension.

9. In a thread holder for a weft replenishing loom having a supply of reserve bobbins, a thread cutter located adjacent the cloth, and a shuttle to receive the reserve bobbins one at a time, a resilient support mounted upon the transfer mechanism and having the threads extending from the reserve bobbins Secured directly thereto, said support yielding i in a direction downwardly toward the path of the shuttle and toward the magazine to prevent breakage of the filling eXtending from a freshly transferred bobbin, and said resilient device returning to normal position when the cutter severs the thread to withdraw the latter out of the path of the shuttle.

In testimony whereof I have hereunt o affixed my signature.

' RICHARD G. TURNER. 

